Does your favorite beach have a pollution problem?

Best beaches

Heal the Bay identified nearly two dozen beaches in San Diego County that have excellent water quality year-round.

Cardiff State Beach

•San Elijo Lagoon outlet

•Las Olas, 100 yds. south of Charthouse

•Seaside State Park

Carlsbad

•Projection of Cerezo Drive

•Projection of Palomar Airport Road

•Projection of Ponto Drive

•Projection of Poinsettia Lane

Coronado

•Projection of Ave del Sol

•Silver Strand

Del Mar

•San Dieguito River Beach

Encinitas-San Elijo State Park

•Pipes surf break

•North end of State Park stairs

•Projection of Liverpool Drive

Ocean Beach

•Stub Jetty

•Pier, north side at Newport Avenue

•Pier, Projection of Narragansett Avenue

•Projection of Bermuda Avenue

Oceanside

•Projection of Tyson Street

•Projection of Cassidy Street

•St. Malo Beach (downcoast from St. Malo Road)

Point Loma

•Lighthouse

Sunset Cliffs

•Projection of Ladera Street

Source: 2011-2012 Beach Report Card

San Diego County has some of the state’s cleanest stretches of sand — but it also suffers from the worst coastal sewage pollution problem in California, according to the latest Beach Report Card issued Thursday.

Heal the Bay’s 22nd annual assessment shows San Diego’s shoreline continued to shine by some measures, with nearly two dozen beaches highlighted for excellent year-round water quality and no entries on the “beach bummers” list for worst dry-weather pollution.

During the summer, 93 percent of all spots tested in the county got A grades, meaning the chances of getting sick from nearshore bacteria is pretty slim from April to October.

“San Diego’s beaches are staying really clean during the summer, when most people are in the water. But we are concerned with the number of sewage spills in the area,” said James Alamillo, who manages urban programs for Heal the Bay in Santa Monica. “This year San Diego had more than twice as many known spills as any other California county.”

The annual report card is a comprehensive assessment of coastal water quality based on daily and weekly samples taken along the West Coast, including 69 monitoring locations in San Diego County. Poor grades mean beachgoers face a higher risk of contracting illnesses such as the flu, ear infections and skin rashes than visitors at cleaner beaches.

During rainy weather, 77 percent of local beaches get A or B grades. That’s better than the five-year average of 68 percent but still low enough to highlight persistent problems with stormwater and sewage fouling the coast.

The county suffered several beach closures from April 2011 through March 2012 due to the largest volume of sewage spills reported statewide during the study period. The report card counted 11 spills in San Diego County that dumped a combined 2.3 million gallons of waste into local waters.

The actual amount was far larger because Heal the Bay’s draft report didn’t account for revised figures following the Sept. 8 power regional power outage that caused failures at two San Diego city pump stations. Early reports pegged the total at about 2 million gallons, but that was later increased to roughly 3.5 million gallons after city officials reviewed flow meters.

Those power-related accidents remain under investigation at the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, which regulates water pollution and typically issues fines for large sewage leaks.

Jeremy Haas, an environmental program manager at the regional board, said the county’s poor showing in the annual report could be due to old infrastructure in coastal cities and hilly terrain that makes system maintenance challenging.

Beach bummers

The annual Beach Report Card singles out the most polluted beaches in the state during dry weather, when contamination typically ebbs. This year, they are:

Avalon Harbor Beach on Catalina Island (Los Angeles County)

Cowell Beach (Santa Cruz County)

Puerco Beach at the Marie Canyon storm drain (Los Angeles County)

Surfrider Beach (Los Angeles County)

Dan Blocker County Beach at Solstice Creek (Los Angeles County)

Cabrillo Beach harborside (Los Angeles County)

Doheny State Beach at San Juan Creek outlet (Orange County)

Poche Beach (Orange County)

Escondido State Beach (Los Angeles County)

Topanga Beach (Los Angeles County)

“But … that is not really an excuse for spills,” he said. “Our goals is certainly to minimize and get to zero.”

Heal the Bay also noted that problems persist in the Tijuana River, where sewage-laced flows from Mexico foul the valley and the coast after virtually every rain. During the study period, the four southernmost beaches in San Diego County were closed for 130 days to keep oceangoers away from contamination.

“That continues to be the Achilles heel for San Diego,” Alamillo said.

The study did not extend into April, when an estimated 4 million gallons of raw sewage leaked into the Tijuana River and contributed to long-term beach closures. Those problems likely will give the region another black eye in next year’s beach report.

When it comes to negative publicity, it’s hard to outdo Los Angeles County. Seven of the state’s most polluted beaches during dry weather were in that county, including Surfrider and Avalon. Two Orange County beaches — Doheny and Poche — also made the “bummer” list, along with one from Santa Cruz County.